Veterinary specialists

A veterinary specialist is a veterinarian who has completed additional training in a specific area of veterinary medicine and has passed an examination that evaluates their knowledge and skills in that specialty area. Currently, there are 22 AVMA-recognized veterinary specialty organizations comprising 41 distinct specialties. Veterinarians can be specialists in behavior, ophthalmology (eye diseases), internal medicine, surgery, dentistry and many more areas. The specialty organizations are referred to as "colleges," but they're not schools or universities.

The specialist's expertise complements that of your veterinarian. You may be referred to a veterinary specialist if diagnosing or treating your pet's health problem requires specialized equipment and/or expertise that your veterinarian does not have.

It's critical that you, your veterinarian and the veterinary specialist communicate and work together to provide the best care for your pet.

Here's a list of veterinary specialties recognized by the American Board of Veterinary Specialties, with very simple descriptions of what these specialists do. For more information about the specialties, click the link to go to the website of the specialty college responsible for certifying veterinarians in that specialty:

Anesthesia: veterinarians who focus on making sure animals feel less or no pain associated with veterinary procedures

Poultry Veterinarians: veterinarians who work with chickens, turkeys and/or ducks, usually in food production settings

Preventive Medicine: veterinarians who study how diseases are spread and how they can be prevented

Radiology: veterinarians who focus on the study of x-ray, ultrasound, computed tomography (often called CAT scans), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and other imaging procedures that allow us to see "inside" an animal's body

Surgery: veterinarians who specialize in performing surgery. A certified surgeon will be certified in either small animal surgery or large animal surgery. Within these groups, many surgeons will focus their work in one of these two subcategories but are not limited to them:

Orthopedics: these surgeons focus on bones, joints, ligaments, tendons, etc. of the body's skeletal system

Soft Tissue surgery: these surgeons focus more on the internal organs and non-bone tissues of the body